Panellist

Sophie Mirabella

Shadow Minister for Innovation

Sophie Mirabella is one of the Liberal Party’s most committed ideological warriors. Born Sophie Panopoulos in Melbourne in 1968, the daughter of Greek migrants who arrived in Australia in the 1950s, she has spent much of her adult life in the political trenches. Her foes are not just ALP members but also those Liberal colleagues who do not conform to her view of Liberal ideology.

Sophie went to St Catherine’s School in Toorak and then to Melbourne University, where she was president of the Liberal Club, vice-president of the Australian Liberal Students’ Federation and a passionate opponent of the student Left. Graduating with degrees in commerce and law, she came to national attention as a strong advocate for the monarchy at the 1998 Constitutional Convention on the republic issue. Since 2001 she has represented the seat of Indi, in Victoria’s rural north-east.

During her career Sophie has had little time for ideological opponents. When Liberal moderates questioned the Howard government line on asylum seekers Sophie labelled them ‘political terrorists’; she attacked former PM Malcolm Fraser’s criticisms of the Bush administration, saying he was guilty of either ‘intellectual sloppiness or deliberate dishonesty’ and tacitly supported Islamic fundamentalism. In February 2008 she was one of five Liberals who were not present when the motion of apology for the stolen generations was approved and later said there was no evidence that any children were truly stolen.

In 2006 she married Greg Mirabella and in 2008 the couple had a baby girl, Alexandra. Sophie was promoted to the Opposition front bench in the same year, becoming shadow minister for early childhood education, childcare, status of women and youth.